I Want to Be in the Room Where it Happens. The Hit Musical Hamilton as a Touristic Destination and its Influence on its Fandom's Travel Behavior
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2019-07-05
Language
en
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Hamilton: An American Musical and its author, Lin-Manuel Miranda, have become global sensations. Hamilton, as a work of fanfiction by Miranda, has cultivated a loyal fan base that shares similar behaviors to literary fans. Hamilton’s success created a high ticket demand that fueled an increase in prices and has created a sense of exclusivity around the musical. Thus, this thesis has adopted a multidisciplinary framework in the fields of tourism, fan studies and theatre to answer the question in what ways “The Room Where It Happens” is a touristic destination of its own and how the fandom’s appropriation of the musical and relationship to the creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, is influencing travel choices and behaviors in New York City and Puerto Rico. The thesis is divided into three segments: The exploration of “The Room Where It Happens” as a travel destination, the ‘Hamilton Gaze’ and the fandom’s perception of “The Room Where It Happens” and New York and the San Juan area as musical travel destinations. Through the analysis of 514 survey responses, 60 Instagram posts and 8 tour or tour package websites in New York, U.S. and San Juan, Puerto Rico, this research tries to prove: The kinship fans have with Miranda is similar to the relationship literary fans have with their favorite author; the existence of a ‘Hamilton Gaze’ of the musical’s flagships; the musical as a travel motivator for people interested in the musical; and “The Room Where It Happens” as a travel destination and its influence in cultivating complementary touristic destinations in the cities of New York, USA and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The analysis of Instagram captions shows that fans use the platform to re-perform and appropriate the musical’s story. As such, the reproduction of the playbill and the stage as landmarks attest to the existent of the spiral of representation within the theatrical context and shows the importance of considering “The Room Where It Happens” as a touristic site. Consequently, based on survey analysis, I can determine that “The Room Where It Happens” has become an attraction capable of incentivizing travel and has the potential to foster complementary touristic destinations. Tour websites in both cities have used the musical as a promotional tool. Thus, these findings contribute to the scholarly debate in theatre fandom and play-induced tourism and can help touristic destinations leverage musicals to attract tourism.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Letteren